Archive for June, 2016

AACTE’s 2016 Day on the Hill welcomed more than 120 member participants to the nation’s capital last week, building their capacity for political advocacy and delivering them to Capitol Hill to present their messages personally to member of Congress and their staff.

The event kicked off June 7 at the Crystal Gateway Marriott in Arlington, Virginia. Attendees enjoyed a full-day orientation, expanded from prior years to more fully prepare them to articulate their positions, cultivate positive relationships with elected officials and the media, and partner with other education advocates.

AACTE President/CEO Sharon Robinson welcomed participants, saying she was excited to convene members for such an important cause. “We are taking on some of our greatest challenges,” she said. AACTE Board of Directors Chair Jane Bray and Committee on Government Relations and Advocacy Chair Joen Larson joined in offering greetings.

What an inspirational and invigorating experience I had last week at AACTE’s State Leaders Institute (SLI)—in my 7th year participating in AACTE’s Washington Week!

SLI was held June 5-6 at the Crystal Gateway Marriott in Arlington, Virginia. Thirty-five states were represented by 60 attendees, many of whom were new faces adding to SLI’s rich and continuing conversations. This enrollment represented an increase from last year of 10 additional AACTE state chapters and also included 20 attendees who returned from the 2015 institute.

Over the course of 2 days, we enjoyed ample and fulfilling opportunities to engage with expert panelists, peers sharing research-based and cutting-edge practices in preparing high-quality teachers and leaders for PK-12 schools, federal updates, policy trend overviews, advocacy and coalition planning, working with policy makers and their staffers, working with the media, and individual and state chapter strategic planning work time. We also had the pleasure to interact at a special reception with not only each other but also a cohort of AACTE Holmes Scholars—graduate students from across the country who represent the brightest future in the profession.

A new study finds that using observational ratings of beginning teachers may be a viable alternative—or a useful complement—to relying solely on controversial “value-added” modeling (VAM) in evaluation of educator preparation providers (EPPs).

An article about the study by Matthew Ronfeldt and Shanyce Campbell of the University of Michigan School of Education, published in the journal Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, is now available online.

In what the authors describe as the first study to investigate the use of teachers’ observational ratings to evaluate their preparation programs and institutions, the results are compelling.

“The demands for teacher preparation accountability continue to grow, from the proposed federal regulations to new accreditation standards,” said Ronfeldt, who was also the 2016 recipient of AACTE’s Outstanding Journal of Teacher Education Article Award. “We sorely need better ways to assess program quality. Although VAM makes an important contribution to our understanding of program outcomes, we likely need multiple measures to capture something as complex as preparation quality. We are excited to find that teacher observational ratings could be a viable supplement.”

Although critics sometimes claim that educator preparation programs have few or no requirements for admission and completion, federal Title II data say otherwise. In this article, we explore the number of exit requirements reported by different types of providers at the undergraduate and graduate levels. (See our recent blogs about the number and frequency of various entry requirements.)

As noted in the first blog of our series, the Title II survey provides 15 options for providers to indicate their entry and exit criteria:

When considering the trends in college degree attainment among students of color, there appears to be a tale of two genders, and something must be done about it. In April, I was part of a group of educators from across the country that convened in New Jersey at William Paterson University’s College of Education to consider the issue. The attendees have been working together over the past 2 years as members of AACTE’s Black and Hispanic/Latino Male Initiative Networked Improved Community (NIC), drawing upon the collective expertise of the member institutions to increase representation of Black and Hispanic/Latino males in the teacher workforce.

The annual Holmes Scholars Dissertation Symposium and Retreat convened May 27-28 at the University of Central Florida (UCF) in Orlando. The retreat served as an invaluable exchange of knowledge, mentorship, and networking. Professionals in the fields of counseling and mentoring, qualitative research, quantitative research, and grant writing guided more than 70 participants in their doctoral journeys.

AACTE is excited to announce the launch of a new webinar series on clinical practice beginning this month. Kicking off Thursday, June 16, 11:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m. EDT, the series will highlight examples of AACTE members’ clinical programs and partnerships and will provide updates on the work and progress of AACTE’s Clinical Practice Commission (CPC), which plans to release a white paper in early 2017.

The inaugural webinar, “Building the Pathway From Theory to Practice: The AACTE Clinical Practice Commission” will feature members of the CPC presenting an overview of their work during the past year. Learn about the commission’s efforts to establish a clearly defined pathway between the research and theory supporting clinical teacher preparation in order to operationalize and support best practice in the field. The overview will include–

Carol E. Smith, longtime AACTE staffer who deftly guided the Association through the early standards movement and years of accreditation reforms, died June 6 in Falls Church, Virginia. She was 66.

A native of Johnson City, Tennessee, Smith gave 23 years of devoted service to AACTE. After an early career in the banking and legal fields, she joined the AACTE staff as an administrative assistant in 1985 and worked up to senior leadership as vice president for professional issues before leaving in 2008.

Her portfolio of responsibilities was vast, including orchestrating the Association’s liaison with the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education, contributing to the design of the Interstate New Teacher Assessment and Support Consortium, and convening the Task Force on Teacher Education as a Moral Community, among others.

UPDATE: Submission deadline for Best Practice and Professional Achievement Awards has been extended to October 26

Now in its 21st year, AACTE’s awards program recognizes member institutions’ exemplary programs as well as individuals who have made noteworthy contributions to education preparation. For an overview of last year’s winners, see this press release.